Syrian government forces pressed on with deadly assaults yesterday, killing around 50 civilians, monitors said, on the eve of a peace mission by international envoy Kofi Annan.
And in a new blow to the regime after this week’s resignation of a deputy cabinet minister, a dozen army officers defected, including six generals and a woman lieutenant, going across the border to Turkey, reports said.
On the diplomatic front Russia, one of Syria’s last remaining allies along with China, criticised as “unbalanced” a new US-led initiative to push through a damning UN Security Council resolution.
Underscoring divisions among world powers, US State Department spokeswoman Vitoria Nuland said Washington is “not overly optimistic” about the passing of the resolution “in the near future.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to explain Moscow’s stance in talks today in Cairo with his Arab counterparts.
Regime troops stormed a village in Idlib, and attacked other districts there, reflecting growing fears that the north-western province will meet the same fate as the battered rebel stronghold of Baba Amr in the city of Homs.
“Troops attacked the village of Ain Larose and opened fire killing 13 civilians,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said in Beirut.
They were among nearly 50 people killed in the assaults in Idlib and elsewhere across the country by regime forces, including the rebel province of Homs where rocket and mortar attacks claimed 10 lives.
The deaths came as tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the regime across the country, with huge demonstrators taking place in the second city Aleppo.Protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad chanted: “Assad your days are numbered” and “May God damn your soul.”
They also called for the arming of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).
But Mr Annan who is expected in Damascus today, on the heels of a two-day visit by UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, has warned against further militarisation of the crisis.
Mr Annan will meet President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus today but only talk with opposition leaders outside of the conflict-stricken country, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said.
Faced with a groundswell of pressure to end the bloodshed, Syria said it was ready to allow the United Nations to conduct a humanitarian mission.